Giant Food Store Expanding Again

The in the Village West Shopping Center in planning to grow again.

Plans call for a two-phase expansion to 67,090 square feet, up from the existing 57,962 square feet.

“We’re going to be adding about 9,100 square feet to the store,” said Chris Brand, a spokesman for the Carlisle-based Giant Food Stores.

Neighboring Landau jewelers will have to vacate its 1,273-square-foot store
when its current lease expires, the shopping center owner said. That lease
has eight years remaining, a Landau official said.

Phase 1 will add 7,855 square feet, and it involves bumping out the front of the store some 20 feet to 40 feet into the parking areas.

Phase 2 is the expansion into the Landau space.

No other properties in the center will be affected, according to plans
submitted to South Whitehall Township. 

Stacy Slater, senior vice president for investments for Village West owner
Cedar Crest Associates c/o Centro Property Group in New York, said Phase 2
wouldn’t start until Landau’s lease expired.

A spokeswoman for Nat Hyman, owner and president of the Allentown-based Landau jewelry chain, said Landau had no current plan to move. “We have another eight years on our lease,” said Madeline Daly, the spokeswoman. “Any other information is incorrect.”

Brand did not have a timetable for the start of the Giant expansion, though South Whitehall planners recommended approval of the expansion in February and township zoners have weighed in on parking matters.

He expects the work on phase one to be completed by the end of the year.

“We like to touch our stores every six or seven years with improvements," he said.

Brand said Giant is listening to the Lehigh Valley community and reacting by growing.

“It  wanted a larger store,” Brand said. “Usually the biggest growth is in
the produce department.”

An application for a building permit to add to the store's square footage and renovate the interiors has been submitted to the township and is under review, according to township officials.

Giant and sister company, Martins, currently operate 181 stores in four
states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.
Founded in 1923, Giant/Martins supermarkets are subsidiaries of Dutch-based
Ahold and employ about 30,000 people, the company said on its website.

The Giant store in South Whitehall opened in the mid-1970s and underwent an expansion in the late 1990s. Under the new plan, the parking lot would be improved and traffic flow simplified, according to commissioner board minutes.

Originally, the latest expansion proposed a gas station near the area currently occupied by the bankrupt Blockbuster Video. That proposal was pulled after the public voiced disapproval, township officials said.